Browsing Tag: Pogrom

No popular book on contemporary Indian history is complete without the 1984 pogrom. Accounts of 1984 in these books are strikingly similar, but are complexly nuanced when it comes to details and stories of personal tragedies and human suffering.

Traditionally what we seem to have been doing is that in difficult and trying times we never avoided or shirked away from facing the oppression that the evil were thrusting upon us. We took it on the chin and bore the atrocities with calm fortitude.

There have been some suggestions for the victims of the 84 pogrom and the Sikh community to forgive and forget the event and move on. In our analysis that follows we will be looking at the suggestion to forgive and forget closely for their practicability.

....most of it pertains to or arises out of the impulse to record it for history or otherwise to understand and evaluate how much the state machinery was implicit in planning and execution of the Pogrom and continued to be actively engaged in impeding the delivery of justice through commissions of enquiry, use of all manner of witness intimidation, delays and other dilatory devices.

The presence of Army had been able to restore a semblance of order, most of these deaths took place during the daylight hours on two days - 1st and 2nd November. This would average more than a killing a minute...

The discussion in the papers that follow is intended for us to look at the various imperatives, initiatives and options that often come to our minds when we think of this event and try finding a comprehensive way forward that may be in harmony with the Sikh aspirations and Sikh ethos of societal peace and harmony.